Organizing Your New Business, Without Losing It (Your Mind, That Is)..

By John Hessemer
Posted Monday, December 20, 2004

Before rushing headlong into a new internet business, let's take a quick look at some of the elements that are involved and how to get them setup and running. There are different elements involved for different businesses, so I am going to deal in generalities here.

Let's break it down into the most basic parts:

1. Research and Signup.

2. Setup.

3. Advertising.

Now let's break down these elements and figure out ways to organize them for easy future reference.

1. Signup.

First and foremost is the research necessary to be assured you are going into the right business for you. There are many types of internet businesses, and finding one you are interested in and enthused about is not always the easiest thing, but vital to your eventual success.

A very important tool for any kind of research on the internet is the "BOOKMARK" or "FAVORITE" tool in your browser. It's very important to categorize your favorites into different folders so you will be able to find them again at a later date.

For instance you might want to start a folder called "Business Opporunities" to keep any good looking offers you come across while surfing in. You could further break down this category into "Self-Owned" and "Affiliate Programs". When you do decide to join a program, move it from "Business Opportunities" to "Business Ventures" using the "organize" function in your browser.

Another good resourse to use while searching for the right business is one of the "Scam Checker" services available free of charge on the internet. Following is a couple of them I have used to good advantage in the past:

(http://www.fraud.org/) (http://www.scambusters.org/) A newsletter available about scams.

2. Setup.

To get setup properly for the running of your business it is wise to keep everything pertaining to it in one location on your harddrive. This makes it much easier to find what you need when you need it.

You could start a "Business" directory and put folders in it for the various aspects of the business. These again can be broken down into easier to locate sections such as "Hit Programs", "Affiliate Programs", "Promotional Tools", "My Businesses", etc.

Any venture you join should have it's own folder so you can easily find information you need in the everyday conduct of that business. Sub-folders could include "Advertising", "Links", etc.

3. Advertising.

This is of course the life blood of any business and probably the hardest to organize. There are so many different aspects to to advertising and differing schedules that these aspects take place in.

When you first start in a business venture you are usually advised to take some time and get familiar with the website and and ad materials available to you. This is excellent advise but you should take it a step further and take the time to copy the ad material, catagorize it and save it to a folder inside the folder for that business. That way, when you start to advertise your business you will not have to go searching for the information you need.

In your advertising folder you could have a notepad document with "Text Ads", one with "Banners", one with "Ezine Ads", "Solo Ads", etc. This method keeps everything you need at your finger- tips and also gives you consistancy in your advertising.

Different types of advertising need to be placed at different times on, different schedules and yet need to be tended on a regular basis in order to be effective. A good way to do this is also with a notepad document. When you place an ad, take the time to note where and when it was placed, when it needs to be placed again, and the ad campaign that was used.

A simple scheduling program could also be used to keep track of when and where ads need to serviced. If you take the time to setup a scheduling program and go to it daily to remind yourself of what needs attention that day, your time will be used much more effectively and you won't neglect any of the many aspects that need to be used.

This is by no means a complete list of what needs to be done to be successful in a business venture, but is intended to get you off on the right foot from the start.

To Your Success,

John Hessemer

About the Author
John Hessemer publishes "Generating Income Streams Today" Newsletter, a fresh and information packed newsletter dedicated to providing support to home-based business people. For the "Best Rated" bizops, helpful tools and hints and a friend in the business, get a F-R-E-E subscription today at: (http://ShiningBeacon.com)